Comparative analysis of residential building envelopes newly implementing the building insulation code in Damascus

Abstract

The selection of envelope construction technique has the highest impact on sustaining indoor thermal comfort while reducing energy consumed for heating and cooling. Numerous insulation codes are implemented worldwide to improve building envelope modification. Each country has set envelope transmittances criteria, materials, techniques and simulation tools differently based on its climate zones and construction sector adaptability. The housing sector in Syria is the focus of energy conservation being responsible of half of the energy consumption in the country. Syrian post-conflict residential buildings are challenged by the new implementation of Building Insulation Code. This code has opted for a “fabric first” dwellings design approach with mandatory U-value standards. Hence, like many energy-related regulations in Syria it has been dropped because the construction sector has not been able to cope with them, forced by speculators to keep costs low. Another reason is that building thermal performance modeling has not been used to comply with the new insulation code in Syria. The research aims to examine the potential relevance of the Insulation Code in informing post-war social housing envelope structures in Damascus. It evaluates compliant building envelope structures compared to conventional building in terms of transmittance properties, simulated thermal loads (IESVE) and cost–energy trade-off. The research findings reveal an improvement in U-values of 78.5%, 31.5%, 92.7% and 90.2% achieved in compliant cases 1, 3, 4 and 5, respectively, compared to conventional case-2. The simulation demonstrated best improvement in total heating loads up to 85% achieved in case-4. Hence, the improved U-value lead to improvement in winter heating loads but overheating in summertime. The simulation was found useful but not enough to optimize envelope performance through interdisciplinary decision that contributes positively to Syrian post-war circumstances. The cost analysis found an increase in wall initial construction costs, amounting to 36.4%, 27.3%, 54.6% and 45.5% in cases 1, 3, 4 and 5 with long payback periods. These findings spark a new agenda for Insulation Code improvement. The proposed simplified criteria offer practitioners more understanding to customize their own list of envelope structure parameters based on the climatic zone resulting in a shift in envelope selection from input to a more output oriented.